Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandom:
Language:
English
Collections:
Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
Stats:
Published:
2020-11-05
Completed:
2009-10-14
Words:
13,033
Chapters:
5/5
Comments:
5
Kudos:
60
Bookmarks:
1
Hits:
6,745

Too Good To Be True

Summary:

This is a small hurt/comfort fest for Curry fans.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Notes:

I wrote this because I felt like some hurt /comfort and being a Curry girl I just had to hurt him.

Chapter Text

Title: Too Good To Be True

Author; Avoca

Fandom: Alias Smith & Jones

Genre: Gen

Rating:

Summary: This is a small hurt/comfort fest for all the Curry fans.

Warnings: None

 

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.  The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise.  No copyright infringement is intended.

Thanks to my beta Lyn

Too Good To Be True

Chapter One  

 

    It seemed like everything was going their way lately. That’s what had Hannibal Heyes worried; it was too good to be true and one of the things his pragmatic father had instilled in him as a small child was the old maxim ‘if it seems like it’s too good to be true then it is’. Heyes shifted in the saddle and turned to look over his shoulder where his partner Kid Curry was riding his dark golden brown gelding just a few paces behind him. Curry’s hat was tilted to keep the worst of the sun’s glare out of his eyes and he moved in harmony with his mount. Heyes turned forward in the saddle again but didn’t increase his horse’s steady pace.

“All right, Heyes, what’s going through your mind?” Curry’s voice drifted in the quiet afternoon air.

“Nothing, Kid, nothing at all. I’m just thinking about how good things have worked out lately.”

“Nope! You ain’t, Heyes, you’re fretting about the fact that we have money in our pockets and that we haven’t been shot at or chased by a posse in the last ten days.” Kid’s tone was light but he pushed his hat further up off his forehead as he spoke and sat upright in the saddle.

“I don’t know where you got that idea, Kid.”

“You always fret when you’ve got nothing to worry over.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“No, it doesn’t but it’s what you always do.”

“No, I mean what you just said doesn’t make sense, how could I be fretting if I have nothing to worry over?”

“I know you, Heyes and all I know is that’s what’s happening now. I can’t explain it but I know it.” With that Curry pulled the brim of his hat down lower and urged his horse on so that he passed Heyes and took up the lead.

Heyes smiled as he studied the back of his partner. As usual Kid was right but he’d be damned if he’d ever let him know that.

 

   Two hours later as the afternoon was giving way to a warm evening, the town of ‘Apple Grove’ came into sight. Heyes caught up with his partner and he read the words on the small wooden sign nailed to a stake on the outskirts of the town.

“Apple Grove, population 156, Sheriff, Tom Bodley. Well, our luck seems to be holding I never heard of Tom Bodley, did you?”

“No, can’t say I have.” Curry’s blue eyes danced with pleasure at the thought of a hot meal, a warm bath and a soft bed.

 

They rode into the small town that resembled so many other towns they had ridden through, but for some reason instead of making their way to the hotel, Heyes nudged his horse towards the saloon and Kid followed his lead. “I feel like a beer” Heyes said to explain his action and Kid just nodded. They tied their mounts to the hitching rail outside the grandly named  ‘Royal Saloon’ and Kid studied the town from under the brim of his hat as Heyes fussed with the tie of his saddle bag.  Thinking about it later he couldn’t remember what he had needed to get from the bag but whatever it was it had given the young man coming out of the general store two doors away from the saloon time to see and recognize them.

 

The dark haired man was slightly younger than Kid but he recognized the ex-outlaws with the first glance. Ed McBain had been eighteen and travelling with his father when the Devil’s Hole Gang had held up their train. McBain remembered the cockiness of the outlaws and the terror of his father and how he had realized that his father was not the man he had believed him to be. McBain senior had virtually collapsed as the outlaws entered their compartment and the young man’s cheeks burned with shame once again as he recalled Curry striding through the train barking orders and smiling at the women but always in command of the situation. And how the outlaw had stopped at their seats when he saw the older man crouched and shaking with fear. Curry had smiled at the young man and said, “Look after your father, we’re only interested in the safe and we’ll be gone in a few minutes.” and he had walked on but hatred began to burn in Ed McBain that day. It was directed at his father because of his palpable fear but it was also aimed at the outlaw who had shown the boy that his father was not heroic but human. In the five years since the robbery Ed Mc Bain had become a hard man. He had begun to treat his father with contempt, and after hours spent practising his fast draw he had realized his talent lay in some other channel so he had put away the gun and adopted the knife and he was good with it; real good. The weapon suited the young man, it felt good in his hand and when the blade made contact, it slid in and did untold harm to its victim.  McBain had never killed anyone but he had earned a reputation which meant that people in the small town stayed out of his way. While his father ran a large ranch out of town, the young man killed time until he knew the holding would be passed to him and then he would show people how a real man acted. McBain couldn’t believe his luck when he saw Kid Curry and Hannibal Heyes dismount in front of the saloon. Anger, which was never far from the surface pushed up through his veins and pumped through his body like molten lava. He clutched the hilt of his six inch dagger and marched towards Curry and Heyes.

 

Heyes finished with his saddle bag and joined his partner and they began the short walk to the saloon when suddenly a dark haired man appeared in front of them. Before either of them could react, the glint of sunlight hit the blade as a knife appeared in the man’s hand. Curry saw it first and as the blade cut through the air, he turned towards the right, away from his partner and tried to deflect it by bringing up his left hand. He acted on instinct trying to protect his partner though he didn’t realize the knife was aimed at him and not at Heyes, but the action worked in his favor and probably saved his life. McBain was so intent on sliding his knife into Curry that the last minute twist by his intended victim was enough to alter the course of the knife and instead of ploughing into Curry’s chest, it sliced into his left forearm.

 

Curry cried out as the knife cut through his flesh and Heyes kicked out at Mc Bain as he saw the knife enter his friend’s arm. McBain went down hard on his back against the swing doors of the saloon but instead of having the air knocked out of him, the jolt seemed to release the voice in his head and he shouted, “It’s Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, don’t let those bastards get away, there’s rewards on their heads.”

 

Everything seemed to happen at once as McBain’s shout went up. Heyes saw blood spill from his partner’s arm as Curry tried in vain to hold it back with his right hand. Heyes grabbed at Curry’s shoulders and pulled him towards their horses, instinct took over and the two men scrambled into their saddles and headed out of town just as the saloon doors were flung open and McBain was helped to his feet by one of the patrons of the saloon. Another man pushed past them and ran into the street where he let off a few shots at the rapidly retreating backs of the ex-outlaws. The whole town seemed to come to life with shouts of ‘posse’ and ‘get the Sheriff’ filling the air as Heyes and Curry rode for their lives.

 

Heyes and Curry rode at furious speed for a few miles and then eased off to give their horses time to recover. Heyes looked over at his partner. “What the hell was that about?”

“I’ve no idea; I didn’t recognize him, did you?”

“No, but he sure as hell knew us.”  Heyes looked back over his shoulder and Curry stayed silent.

“How bad?” Heyes asked, turning his attention back to his partner.

“I’ve had worse” Curry said, stopping his horse and beginning to fumble at the bandana around his neck.

Heyes reined in beside him and leaned over as Curry pulled the bandana free from his shirt. “Here, let me see.” Heyes took the cheery piece of red material from his friend’s hand and gently took Curry’s left arm. Heyes ripped the bloody material of the shirt sleeve away from the wound and Curry hissed in pain as the cloth pulled free of the wound.

“Sorry,” Heyes muttered as he concentrated on the wound. “Kid, this is bad and you’re bleeding like a stuck pig.” He wound the bandana around the deep cut in Curry’s forearm and tied it in place but still blood seeped through the cloth, quickly turning it dark brown.

Curry bit down on the groan he felt and concentrated on not vomiting. He felt light - headed and Heyes seemed to be ebbing in his line of vision. He pulled his thoughts back to their predicament. “How long do you think it will take them to form a posse?”

Heyes placed Curry’s injured arm gently on Curry’s left thigh and looked at his friend. “I don’t know, maybe they won’t bother, we got a good head start, Kid and you have to agree our luck has been real good lately.” Heyes’s brown eyes looked back down the trail and not at his partner.

“Heyes, I think our luck just changed so we should ride and put some distance between us and the town.”  Curry lightly kicked his horse’s flanks and moved off.

Heyes was beside him in a moment. “Are you going to be able to ride?”

“Yeah, it looks worse than it is and at least I don’t have a bullet in me this time.”

“All right but if you need to rest, you tell me before you fall off your horse.”

Heyes waited for Kid to make a snappy comeback but none came so he stole a glance at his partner and he didn’t like what he saw. Kid was white- faced and sitting rigid in the saddle. Kid was one of the liveliest men Heyes had ever seen and this silent, taciturn man did not resemble his partner, which meant Kid had to be a lot worse off than he was letting on.

 

Heyes turned his attention back to their most pressing problem; a posse. To that end he began rummaging in his saddle bag and slipped out a small brass eyeglass. It had been a present from Silky the last time they had seen him in San Francisco. Heyes pulled out the barrel of the object and it immediately lengthened to about eight inches. “Kid, you stay here, I’m going back to that last rise to see if there’s anything behind us.”

Curry stopped his horse and nodded his approval to Heyes who had already turned his mount around and was headed back the way they had come. Curry closed his eyes and swayed slightly in his saddle. He was annoyed at himself for feeling so lightheaded; he had suffered far worse injuries in the course of his outlawing days but this knife wound was hurting and he felt very woozy. He kept his eyes closed and waited for Heyes. After a few minutes he heard Heyes’s horse approach and he steeled himself to open his eyes  though as he did so the ground tilted up to meet him and it took all of his determination to hang on and look alert for his partner.

 

Heyes reined in beside Curry. “There’s a cloud of dust a few miles back but even with Silky’s eye glass I can’t make out anything definite. I think we had better move and put some distance between us just in case.”

Curry smiled as reassuringly as he could “Let’s go.” And with that the two riders took off at a brisk but not breakneck speed.